(She had written 'The Outlaws' in 1917, but it was not published until later.) In 1922, the first collection, entitled Just William, was published. Her first published short story featuring William was 'Rice Mould Pudding', published in Home Magazine in 1919. WorkĬrompton's best known books are the William stories, about a mischievous 11-year-old schoolboy and his band of friends, known as 'The Outlaws'. Ashbee of Chelsfield, Kent along with £57,623. After feeling unwell during the night, Crompton telephoned friends the next morning and died within an hour of being taken to hospital.Ĭrompton left the copyright of all her books to her niece, Mrs Richmal C. Crompton had fallen ill on the drive home from visiting her niece's home in Chelsfield, Kent. In spite of her disabilities, during the Second World War she volunteered for the Fire Service.Ĭrompton died in 1969 at the age of 78, after a heart attack, in Farnborough Hospital. Her William stories and her other literature were extremely successful and, three years after she retired from teaching, Crompton was able to afford to have a house (The Glebe) built in Bromley Common for herself and her mother, Clara. She never married and had no children she was an aunt and a great-aunt.

Later in her forties, she suffered from breast cancer and had a mastectomy. She gave up her teaching career and began to write full-time. Having contracted poliomyelitis, she was left without the use of her right leg in 1923. Cadogan (1993) shows that she was an excellent and committed teacher at both schools. In 1914, she returned to St Elphin's as a Classics mistress and later, at age 27, moved to Bromley High School in southeast London where she began her writing in earnest. She took part in the Women's Suffrage movement.

Crompton graduated in 1914 with a BA honours degree in Classics (II class).

In order to further her chosen career as a schoolteacher, she won a scholarship to Royal Holloway College, part of the University of London in Englefield Green, Surrey. She later moved with the school to a new location in Darley Dale, near Matlock, Derbyshire in 1904. Richmal Crompton attended St Elphin's Boarding School for the daughters of the clergy, originally based in Warrington, Lancashire.